Curran made his Test debut as a 19-year-old and won 24 caps between 2018-21 but has not featured since, with his career largely focused on white-ball cricket over the past five years. But North said that his all-round skillset has made him a “player of interest” since Ben Stokes’ retirement, and that he could come into contention for the third Pakistan Test on September 9.
After he missed the IPL with a groin injury, Curran initially returned as a specialist batter in the T20 Blast but has built up his workload through the summer. He played a full part in England’s white-ball series against India, bowling his full 10-over allocation in two ODIs, but missed a Hundred match with a niggle last week and did not bowl when he played on Sunday night.
“With the retirement of Ben Stokes, it’s quite clear that he provided us with a certain balance in the team,” North, who was appointed as an England selector earlier this year, said on Thursday. “Sam Curran is certainly a player of interest for us.
“Sam has had a really heavy workload this summer playing a tremendous amount of cricket, and during that time he’s been doing so with a couple of niggles, which you expect most bowlers do. But at this stage with a couple of niggles – we’ve seen he’s missed a game in the Hundred – we don’t feel physically, he’s just quite right there.
“I think [it would be] unfair to put him into these first two Tests. He’s someone our backroom staff and medical team will be working with in the coming weeks to make sure that he potentially becomes an option in the third Test. He’s someone that we really value highly and we see playing a role in the future for us as an allrounder.”
North said that Curran would have made the squad if fit, and that he would have been in contention to play ahead of Dan Lawrence as an allrounder: “He’d be in the squad, I would have thought, and that would give us that option of either playing Sam Curran at No. 6 or 7 if we felt that was the right balance, or going with six [specialist] batters and [Jamie] Smith.”
England named their squad for the first two Tests of their three-match series against Pakistan on Thursday morning. Jordan Cox is set to bat at No. 3 with Jacob Bethell sidelined for the series due to a knee injury, while Lawrence will bat at No. 6.
North confirmed that England are likely to pick a four-man seam attack – informed in part by the venues for the first two Tests, Headingley and Lord’s – with Lawrence and captain Joe Root as their spin options. Shoaib Bashir remains in the squad in the event that they feel conditions require a frontline spinner.
Their selection for the first Test, in Leeds on August 19, could also be impacted by two external factors: firstly, a three-day turnaround from the Hundred final; and secondly, the potential unavailability of Ollie Robinson, whose partner is due to give birth later this month.
“That’s part of the reason you’ve got seven pace bowlers in the squad,” North said. “You’ve got multiple players currently that have potentially different pathway, in terms of how long and how deep they go into the tournament: we might have some bowlers playing a final on the Sunday, and the Test match starts on Wednesday.
“All of that group of bowlers have been really receptive and understand that they’ve been doing some extra work in and around the Hundred competition, in terms of their bowling loads etc. Some of them have even been bowling with a red ball in and around their training.
“They’ve all been given plans through [ECB pace-bowling lead] Troy Cooley around what they need to be at certain workload levels, which makes that transition as smooth as possible and gives them the best chance to, one, be successful, but also, to transition out of the Hundred as safe as possible from an injury perspective.”
Rehan Ahmed missed out on the squad, which North explained was a decision made in part to give him a block of red-ball cricket for Leicestershire in the County Championship rather than carrying drinks. “It’s a tricky little period he’s in,” North said. “He’s going to want the opportunities to play [but] he’s finding himself in our squads, playing the odd game.
“That poses different challenges for a young kid developing his game. He’s very, very understanding of the position he’s in. He’s very focused to go back and perform very well for Leicester… We’re looking forward to seeing him build on his summer to date and finish really strong there.”
Stephen Fleming, England’s incoming head coach, will not take charge in the Pakistan series due to family commitments, with Marcus Trescothick named interim coach. But North said Fleming had “very much” been involved in selection from afar, along with Root, Trescothick and the rest of the selection panel.
“Absolutely, he was involved,” North said. “He’s been employed for the next four years, so we’re going to make sure that our selection and our philosophies and thoughts around that are absolutely aligned with Stephen’s. It would make no sense for us to move forward through this series and for it to be contradictory to where Stephen sees us as a team moving forward.”
Fleming will take over when England tour South Africa for three Tests in December-January. They then travel to Bangladesh for two Tests in February and to Australia for the 150th anniversary Test at the MCG in March, before one home Test against Bangladesh in May leading into the Ashes in June and July.
Matt Roller is a senior correspondent at Cricinfo. @mroller98
